Any plumbers in the Concord area?

BigWaylon

BigWaylon

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Buddy is having an issue with washer drain backing up. We've tried a couple different snakes with no luck. Anybody on here do this work on the weekends?
 
If he can get on the roof and start the snake at the vent, it might help.
If it still clogged it would be in the p- trap under the house.
He on slab or raised?
 
Unfortunately he's on a slab. I can access all my plumbing in a crawlspace (and a ranch style house), but he's a 2-story on a slab.
 
His washer drain appears to be in a Y-connection with the A/C drain, so it keeps filling up even without the washer running.
 
Yeah, he'll need a small dia. Snake to get thru the Ptrap Starting at the washer.
 
BigWaylon said:
His washer drain appears to be in a Y-connection with the A/C drain, so it keeps filling up even without the washer running.
Click to expand...

If he can get a to the condensate drain at the AC then. Send the snake thru there.
It's most likely tied to the vent also
 
Mirac said:
If he can get a to the condensate drain at the AC then. Send the snake thru there.
It's most likely tied to the vent also
Click to expand...
That's what I was trying to say above. His condensate drain from the A/C hits the drain at the same spot.

The A/C drain stops about in inch below that opening. So, getting to that pipe isn't going to help in this situation.

IMG_9742.JPG

Mirac said:
Yeah, he'll need a small dia. Snake to get thru the Ptrap Starting at the washer.
Click to expand...

The snake goes down and hits a dead stop before we run out of snake. Feels solid like a turn it's not making vs a clog of some kind.
 
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We've also started with the major drain outlet access in the front yard and that runs clean.

Doesn't really appear to be any other drains having issues, which leads me to believe it's fairly close to the washer.
 
Wish I could help more.
Just going to have to keep spinning the snak to get past it.
Do you have a cutter tip on the end or spring.
If s cutter. Try taking it off.
 
Does he have a compressor and air nozzle?
Wrap a wet towels round the nozzle and give it a squirt of air.
 
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Snake has a spring end. I also have one of the flat metal ones with a plastic spear looking tip on it.

I don't know if spinning is going to help. It feels like a poorly designed junction.

Thanks for the advice so far.

He (mainly his wife) is hesitant to try a draino type product because of reading online you don't want that water to back up into the washer. If it was mine, I'd pour some down the drain.

Any thoughts on that?
 
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Drano is an acid. It will ruin clothes and you eye site if it blows back out the pipe.
I'd try a cut down plunger before drano
Got to shock the plug with water/air pressure

Try spinning he snake in reverse with the spring end where it gets stuck and giving it a snap forward at the same time to get past it.
 
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Mirac said:
Does he have a compressor and air nozzle?
Wrap a wet towels round the nozzle and give it a squirt of air.
Click to expand...

If there's no compressor available, how 'bout one of these?

61RbfaLAbtL._SL1500_.jpg
 
I can see if my mil could come by and fart in the pipe....she bout blew the roof of our car last week.
 
Mirac said:
How'd it go ? get it unplugged yet ?
Click to expand...
He got hold of a local plumber that happened to be somewhat of a neighbor. Guy said it was a very common problem in the neighborhood he was in. Said there should be a drain access on a wall that goes to the pipe, but we never found one. When I left they were going to wait it out until Monday to not pay weekend rates.

Then, once I got home, his wife texted to say he was going to "pour explosives down the drain"...it was a product called Thrift? Haven't heard how that went.

I wanted to drill a hole or cut out a section of pipe in the attic and splice in an access point. The vent from the roof comes into the attic, makes a 90-degree turn and runs about 15' horizontally, then makes another 90-degree turn to run down through a wall right next to the drain pipe in question.

I'm assuming the pipe we were feeding the snake into connects to that other pipe...just not sure if the clog is before or after that joint. It was easy access to the big pipe, and I wanted to add one of these inline on the horizontal portion just before the 90-degree downturn to give him an access point:

IMG_9744.JPG

But he wasn't going for it. That made a lot more sense to me (and a much shorter snake run) than trying to get on the roof now and in the future to try and clear a clog. It was at least worth a shot to me for the cost of that Y-connector.

His house, his time, his money...so gotta let him make the call. Not the route I would've taken. He's having to occasionally siphon out that section of drain pipe behind his washer to keep it from over flowing.
 
Cutting in the wye to the vent is how would have gone too. That makes sense.
Good on ya for trying to help out.
 
Evidently the Thrift cleaned it out in ~60 seconds last night.
 
I've never heard of Thrift and was curious. Here's a pretty funny review of it from Amazon...

One of the dangers of renting is you never know what the person before you was putting down the drain. After wasting money every month or two getting and using "maximum strength" drain cleaner bought at the store, I decided a limited, tactical nuclear response was required.

Enter Thrift T-200. I ran the shower on hottest setting for several minutes to warm the pipes and dumped about 3/4 cup of the frosted flakes of death into the drain. Activated it with boiling water and performed a beautifully executed dive roll out the bathroom door, escaping the mist of doom.

After about 10 minutes I paid a small child to go into the bathroom and check out the damage. Upon staggering out of the bathroom, the little trooper said the drain was clear. Proving, yet once again, there is nothing a dimwitted man, poison, and poorly compensated child labor cant fix.
 
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